Last Friday I predicted 2013 was going to be a good year for quality video games, but not such a good year for those quality video games actually selling. I stick by that, but that doesn’t mean 2013 won’t have its share of breakout hits. As 2012 demonstrated, the mainstream gaming populace are increasingly willing to get behind indie titles (The Walking Dead, Journey) and original IP can still, sometimes, succeed (Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored).
So, here are seven games that may just outperform expectations…

Dark Souls 2

The first Dark Souls actually managed to sell over a million copies worldwide, an impressive feat for a mercilessly difficult dungeon hack, and I think Dark Souls 2 will do even better. For one it’s being made a bit more accessible, and two, it looks really nice. Dark Souls 2, just in terms of visuals, looks like a triple-A production all the way, as opposed to a niche experience for RPG masochists. I think Dark Souls 2 has a shot at beating out the likes of Dragon Age III to become the most successful non-MMO, non-Pokemon RPG of the year.

Fables

The Walking Dead proved that, against all odds and expectations, a mature, independently developed adventure game could be a major success in 2012. A new season of The Walking Dead will be coming out in 2013, and it’ll do well for itself, but this article is about surprising successes. The surprise will be Fables — another “based on comics for adult people” adventure game series Telltale Games have been quietly working away on.
The source material is great, Telltale is on a roll, and as you may have noticed, twisted, modernized takes on fairy tales, myths and monsters are kind of in right now.

Double Fine’s Adventure Game

Speaking of indie adventure games, Tim Schafer’s thus far unnamed adventure game that instigated the Kickstarter funding revolution in 2012 arrives in 2013, and it could be the biggest success of Tim Shafer’s career to date. Schafer went a little bit astray with Brutal Legend, but I think he’s going to rise to the challenge and deliver something truly special in 2013.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the latest in Nintendo’s series of cute, low-key life sims has been a major hit in Japan, topping the charts week after week and spurring a major uptick in 3DS sales there. The Animal Crossing series has been stuck in its ways for a while, but apparently New Leaf changes just enough to make jumping back in worthwhile. I predict the game will sell almost as well in North America — expect this one to rank surprisingly high on year-end sales lists.

Remember Me

I think Remember Me is going to be this year’s Dishonored — the original IP that comes out of nowhere and succeeds because, well, it’s just really good. Remember Me is a cyberpunk brawler/stealth game with a twisty storyline, adventure and RPG elements and a main protagonist with a pretty nice ass. The game hits on a lot of the gaming industry’s current obsessions, and I think it has a good chance at being successful if the developers can bring all these elements together into a cohesive whole.
Really, it comes down to Capcom — they know how to hard sell a game when they want to, so hopefully they take a chance on Remember Me.

Wind Waker HD

We’re going to see one of the most unexpected comebacks in gaming history this year. Hardcore Zelda fans have already re-evaluated Wind Waker, and this year the mainstream gaming public is going to as well — in 2013 Wind Waker goes from subject of scorn, to critical darling and major sales success.
Then Nintendo will unveil the art style for the next Zelda game and everyone will lose their s–t all over again.

Beyond: Two Souls

Okay, before everyone gets on me, I don’t necessarily think Beyond: Two Souls will do better than The Last of Us. It think there’s a good chance, but that’s not the point. These articles are about expectations — I think The Last of Us will perform below expectations, and I think Beyond: Two Souls will perform better than expectations.
As strange as this is to say, adventure games are actually in again right now (to a certain degree at least), and I think David Cage’s “choose your own adventure movie” style games have the potential to appeal to mainstream audiences if done right. They’re simple, there’s little opportunity to get lost or confused and they look great. Beyond: Two Souls has actual actors with talent doing the voices (instead of random French people) and a plot a little deeper than “generic thriller” — it could be Cage’s best game yet. Also, don’t forget, the far-from-perfect Heavy Rain sold over 2 million copies. There’s no reason to believe Beyond couldn’t top that.
So, which 2013 games are you calling as potential breakout hits? Do you think certain entries on my “flops” list should be on the “surprise successes” list (or vice-versa)? Don’t hold back folks.

You bastards.
Not only are they releasing Shadowrun Returns as cross-platform (pc to tablet I mean) but the MMO Shadowrun Online looks every bit as amazing as the rpg. In fact it might finally be the one MMO I finally join.
Also, remember those sweet, swagg filled Kickstarter packages? They have pretty much the same bonuses available for pre-order.

Oh yeah, I remember using Wind Waker as a prime example of how Nintendo no longer ‘t makes video games for adults just by the art style before it came out. Granted, the game did turn out to be awesome but for a lot of people that was still a game that attributed to turning them off of the Gamecube and the Big N in general.

Pretty sure the only problem anyone ever had with Wind Waker was the art style. Irrational hatred of anything that doesn’t look realistic. You can kind of understand where they were coming from, after Nintendo put out that trailer for a spiffy realistic-looking Zelda early on in the Gamecube’s life (maybe even before the console game out, I can’t recall). Still, ultimately a pretty silly thing to get upset about. It’s kinda funny to think about that and then remember how people were so widely annoyed and pissed off last year when the colorful, semi-cartoonish Overstrike became the gritty, realistic Fuse. People are ridiculous.

Wind Waker is undoubtedly my favorite of the Zeldas, thus making it a serious consideration for my favorite game of all time. I start a new game file at least once a year and play it to near completion.

When I tell this to avid gamers, I may as well have told them that I hate video games. I get so much vitriol over my love of that game. I have never met anyone who even cares to admit they like it. It’s unbelievable.

People went f–king crazy when it was announced, and stayed pretty negative when it was actually released. Wasn’t just the visuals either — people complained bitterly about the Triforce quest, the lack of difficulty and on and on. Took years for people to start turning around.

again – how is it that much of a surprise that Beyond: Two Souls is going to be successful? Heavy Rain did VERY well, and it wasn’t even that much of an action game. this game looks to be much more action-oriented with even better graphics than Heavy Rain had, AND it’s got Ellen Page’s talent behind it? this is a surprise?

Two Souls, like Heavy Rain, is an “interactive story” so I doubt it will be very action oriented. I dig these games as long as the storytelling is strong, they’re like a video game version of Choose Your Own Adventure. I will be def be enjoying Two Souls with some pop-corn in front of me.

Never heard of Fables, but that piece of art alone is pretty intriguing. Seems like I’ve heard nothing but negative sentiments about Remember Me (guess it goes with the territory, as a Capcom game), but it does look kinda cool. Although it looks very similar to Watch_Dogs, except not quite as good.

I also have the impression that way more people hated Heavy Rain than liked it, so it’s hard for me to be optimistic about Beyond’s sales performance. But I do have high hopes for the game itself. Since the very premise is already pretty “out there,” I’m hoping it’ll avoid the descent into goofiness that Indigo Prophecy suffered towards the end.

Confirmed 2013 release… er, well, internet at-large confirmed, but there’s nothing official on the Ubisoft site yet. But pretty much everywhere else says 2013. It’s been in development since 2010, and looks pretty polished at E3 last year.

I still wouldn’t put it on this list, though. I don’t think it’s going to be surprising to anyone when it sells well. I’ll definitely be getting it.

Beyond: Two Souls looks interesting, but will I get to spend 3 minutes walking through a mall sing-songishly yelling the name “Jason”? I did enjoy Heavy Rain, but I still can’t talk about it with my sister without one of us sing-yelling “Jason”.

Dark Souls 2 seems pretty risky, if anything I would pick it to be on one of the possible flops this year. They’re changing up the gameplay going against the previous games’ director Miyazaki, who left the production all together in protest to the moves they’re making. Sounds like they’re making moves to broaden the appeal of Dark Souls, which sounds stupid because the only thing that was keeping the game profitable were the masochistic niche players that loved the game. Expect many returns of this from the non-niche and niche alike who will become frustrated with the gameplay.

Dark Souls sold over a million-and-a-half copies — that’s beyond niche appeal. It was starting to pick up some mainstream attention, so pushing it carefully in that direction a bit may pay off. Also, I’m pretty sure Miyazaki didn’t quit in protest — he’s just taking a break/moving on to other things.

Sorry, yes he didn’t quit in protest. He was moved from the series by Namco Bandai and From Software. There still a lot of development to flesh out to really see what this game is going to be, but Miyazaki is definitely not involved in any development fashion and one of the directors has stated that he is interested in making the game “more straightforward and understandable”. I don’t know, it feels suspect to me that they will end up changing it a lot rather than fine tuning an already good product.

Would it kill Nintendo to release another realistic looking Zelda game? I might actually considering springing for a Wii U if they did. Twilight Princess was a vastly underrated game that was actually pretty awesome (once you got used to the weird and jarring wolf sections).

I just want semi-realistic Link fighting Ganondorf. Is that too much to ask for?

Sorry, but the Double Fine Adventure Game won’t be a surprising success. I know everyone loves them, but Double Fine has never had a game exceed sales expectations. Not once, not ever. Their latest, The Cave, looks like the latest in the long line of games that have a devoted fanbase despite mediocre sales. The same fate awaits the next one and the next one and the next one.

Nate, if you think the critical adoration and cult status of a game makes a lick of difference to the sales of the re-issue, I’d like to direct you to the sub million sales of the Team Ico HD Collection.